


Competition

by writerkind



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M, non-sburb AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-22
Updated: 2012-09-22
Packaged: 2017-11-14 19:18:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/518644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerkind/pseuds/writerkind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John relocates to Texas because of his dad's work, and he ends up living in an apartment complex near Dave. It doesn't take long for him to be wooed by the signature Strider charm, but Dave isn't quite so quick to fall for his best friend. Sad John feels ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Competition

Your name is John Egbert and you’ve recently made a drastic change in location. You grew up in the cool comfortable state of Washington, but due to a job opening for your father, you find yourself planted smack in the middle of urban Texas. The only possible benefit you see to living in this sweltering city is that you happen to live directly across from your best bro of many years, Dave Strider.   
\--  
You look up from whatever dumb book you were supposed to be reading for class, crack your window open, and glance across an alley at your friend’s apartment. Dave’s in his room, laying on his bed with his headphones on, tuned out to the world. You think about texting him to get his attention, but change your mind. You already have plans to hang out later tonight, anyways. You’re still not used to the close proximity of your longtime internet friend, though. You realize suddenly that you’ve been staring at Dave a bit longer than necessary, and turn back to your book blankly. There’s a weird feeling in your stomach, though, like you’re expecting something to happen. You shake your head a little, trying to clear the sensation from your thoughts. Back to work, you think to yourself.

Later that night, your phone buzzed softly. 1 new message, from Dave.  
“go to your roof just trust me dude”  
The roof? You had plans to meet up, not shout at each other from the rooftops. Whatever, you sigh. It’s not too hard to sneak out of the apartment and head up anyways. 

A short elevator trip later, you find yourself outside. It’s dark already, but still warm. Fucking Texas weather, you mutter to yourself. 

“Sup Egbert.” Dave’s voice calls to you, from the other side of the alley. “Stay away from the edge of your building, unless you feel like getting a kick to the face or something. I dunno some people like -”

“Dave! What the hell?” You cut him off before he starts to ramble, because he seems to have gone insane. He can’t seriously be thinking of jumping from roof to roof, can he? Its at least 70 feet down, if not more! 

“John. Chill. This is fucking nothing compared to the stunts I pull with Bro. Just watch.” You barely have time to react as he runs straight off the edge of his building. For a moment, you watch in slow motion, paralyzed by fear, but of course, he lands smoothly with a roll onto your building. “What? No applause for that flawless execution?” he asks, feigning hurt. You’re pretty sure your mouth is hanging open, but for a moment, you’re still too stunned to respond.

“That was at least 20 feet.” you finally manage to say. The look he gives you from behind his shades (who the fuck wears sunglasses at 11 o’clock at night?) is enough of an answer. You should’ve expected that from the kid who was literally raised on physical ability. “Eh, I can do better.” you add. Dave smiles just a little, almost laughing, but not quite because that just wouldn’t be cool, would it? You could swear your heart skips for half a second. Well, that was new. 

You spend the better part of the night on the roof talking about random stuff that neither of you could recall in the morning, but that didn’t matter. There was just something so great about spending time with your closest friend, and not just online. In person. Actually, in real life, Dave Strider. It only takes a few more of these late night meetups for you to realize you have a serious problem. That problem is feelings. 

About a month or so after your first roof night, you decide to be a man and tell Dave exactly what’s going on. You have a big gay mancrush on him and dammit you’re going to let him know. You open your mouth, ready to say it, but he stops you.

“No, dude, hang on. I have the best news.” He pauses, waiting for you to express an interest in what he’s going to tell you. You don’t, but patiently wait for him to continue. “You know Harley, right?” Jade. She’s a sort of mutual friend of yours. You don’t like where this is going. “I totally scored a date with her tomorrow.” He doesn’t show it in his face, but Dave is clearly pleased about this development in his relationship with her. Shit. 

You can literally feel your heart shatter into a million tiny pieces. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why would any of this work out? Has Dave even ever expressed an interest in guys, or did you just assume he would be okay with it? What even was your thought process on this? You scramble to make some kind of statement of approval, but you took too long to respond and you know it. Dave is a freaking master of reading body language, and even though its dark, you aren’t doing too well at hiding your thoughts right now. 

“I...I uh, have to go back to my apartment! Sorry, Dave, maybe another night?” you say, as you make your way back to the elevator. You glance back at him for a second. He knows. He knows exactly why you’re leaving, and he isn’t stopping you. Your eyes are suddenly stinging and your vision gets all hazy with the beginning of a flood of tears as you step through the waiting doors. You don’t look back at your best friend. 

\--

Your phone buzzes.   
“roof?”  
Its Dave.

It’s been a week. You haven’t spoken to him. You don’t think you could really handle it in a manner that wouldn’t be considered unbelievably lame. You stare at the message for a bit, and then throw your phone across the room in a burst of emotion. You scrawl the words “not yet” on a scrap of paper and tape it to your window for Dave. 

\--  
You’re doing homework again the first time you see them together. You look out your window, glancing towards Dave’s apartment purely out of habit. 

She’s sitting on his bed, and he’s playing some song off his turntables for her. They look so damn happy, and you didn’t want to take that from Dave, but you can’t stop the selfish thoughts in your head. You look away again, trying to forget about it. You can’t. The image of them is burned into your thoughts. 

\--

The second time you see them, its worse. They’re curled up together on his bed. You can stop watching as they talk about god knows what. She laughs at something he said, and he kisses her. Dammit. Dammit dammit dammit why are you even watching you fucking creep Egbert go do something productive with your life instead of sighing like a fucking chick over your best friend. Tears well up in you eyes again, and you crawl to your bed, pull the covers over your head, and wish you could suffocate yourself, but instead you just fall asleep unhappy. You fucking hate Texas, you hate your dad for making you move here, you hate Jade for stealing Dave away, and you hate yourself for going and falling in love with a guy who isn’t interested.

\--

You slowly begin to talk to Dave again, for whatever masochistic reason. Nothing like before though, and certainly no more nighttime best bro hangouts. You’re scared to get too close, and he understands. He lets you have the space you need. The friendship is anything but steady, but its still a friendship. When 6 months of hell for you have passed, you get a text you haven’t seen in ages.

“need to talk to you roof tonight”

You start weighing the options in your mind, but you’re interrupted by a second text.

“please”

Has Dave ever said please with sincerity before? As far as you can recall, he hasn’t. Your decision seems to have been made for you. Rooftop best bro night is making a comeback.

\--

“John, I’m fucking sorry.” are the first words out of Dave’s mouth when he sees you. 

“Uhh, why?” You can’t seem to understand why he needed to apologize. You’ve been hurt for so long, it’s just become a part of you. You stopped blaming anyone for it ages ago.

“Everything. This situation is complete bullshit and its my fault.” Woah, where did all this come from?

“Dave, dude, its okay. I mean, frankly, I’m totally over the whole deal.” That’s total bull, and Dave isn’t gonna accept it, but whatever.

“I put a stop to it anyways.” You look up (you hadn’t even realized you’d been avoiding his eyes). 

“What the hell are you talking about?” 

“What do you think, dumbass? I broke up with Jade.” Your mind goes into overdrive. Is he saying what you think he’s saying? That’s not possible. 

“Why?!” You don’t dare jump to any conclusions about it without confirmation. 

“Because a) it was weird. I dunno, I don’t think it was gonna last much longer anyways. And b) it didn’t seem fair to her that I had started to notice someone else.” You stop breathing. There’s only one reason he could be telling you this, right? But he leaves that last piece of information without elaborating. “Look John, I wouldn’t blame you if you fucking hate me by now, but could we at least go back to being best bros?” Your mind does some quick analysis of the use of the phrase “at least”. You deem your next actions to be the riskiest you’ve ever taken, but worth the gamble in this case. 

You throw caution to the wind and kiss him.

You made the right choice.


End file.
